1. Field
Embodiments relate to a power management apparatus interoperating with a smart socket coupled to an electric device, a power management system including the power management apparatus, and a method for controlling the power management system.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of Information Technology (IT), the number of household appliances powered by electricity is rapidly increasing, in turn leading to increasing power consumption. In order to satisfy such increased power demand, the number of power plants is rapidly increasing. However, as can be seen from a power demand pattern, peak capacity is not reached during most days of the year, that is to say, power plants only operate at full capacity during a few days out of the year.
A state in which a high power demand is required for a short time is called peak load. During periods of peak load, electricity costs the most to generate and deliver, and therefore power providers raise the power rate charged to consumers during periods of peak load. Construction costs for adding an additional power plant to the grid are extremely high and maintenance costs for power plants constructed to maintain peak load for a short period are considerable.
Recently, numerous developers are conducting intensive research into a demand management method for temporarily restricting power consumption by limiting peak load without constructing such additional power plants. For the aforementioned purposes, demand management is a focus of attention, and a great deal of research is focused upon an advanced demand management format for demand response (DR).
DR is a system for intelligently managing energy consumption depending upon variation in power rates. For example, the consumer may temporarily stop an air-conditioner so as to reduce power consumption when power rates are high.
By means of the DR, a power-supply source can alter user power consumption patterns to achieve load balancing and can restrict user power consumption to periods when demand is low, thereby reducing the user's overall energy expenditure.
Therefore, an Energy Management System (EMS) to which demand response (DR) is applied has been developed. The EMS receives current power rate information from the power provider, displays a current power rate on the display, and controls driving of each electric device on the basis of the current power rate information and power consumption of each electric device.
In this case, the electric device is a smart electric device that meters power and performs a communication function, is controlled by the EMS, meters power consumption when driven by the EMS, and transmits the metered power to the EMS.
As described above, in order to effectively utilize power at a low price, the EMS and the smart electric device must be installed in every home. However, because the lifetime of a general electric device currently used in each home and the purchase price of the smart electric device, installation of the smart electric device in every home is difficult. That is, a considerably long period of time may be required before such smart electric devices can enter into widespread use.
Therefore, although each home can effectively utilize power at a low price, it is difficult to effectively utilize power in each home because a smart electric device has not been installed in most homes.